(This was taken before she left but this is what I like to think she is doing, haha.)
Bonjour!
Hello hello! how is everyone doing? I'm doing really well. Your letters are amazing! Keep them coming! Everyone seems to be doing awesome.I know that the Lord is blessing you. Mom and Dad you are too much! I got that package and I looove my sheets and blanket. Really. You are the best! I'm sorry it cost an arm and a leg to send it but I can promise you it's going to good use.
This week is very exciting becauseI will have my first baptism on Saturday! Her name is Josie and she is in a part member family. Her parents are from Haiti her mother, Josette, is incredible and she has helped her daughter so much as she has prepared for her baptism. Josie actually speaks english and she loves the Beebs. She actually reminds me a lot of Sharay. I'm really excited and kind of nervous, because well I've never been in charge of a baptism before.
This week we did a lot of contacted, which I'm not very good at. When people say no thank you I'm usually like "Okay. Next!". My companion said that wasn't okay, so she's been making me be more pushy. Well...the other day we were contacting in an apt building and this lady opened her door. As soon as the door opened a horrible ordor leaked out. It was incredibly bad!!! Like every bad smell in the world was congregating in her house. So we go through our door approach and of course she says "No!" and I can barely choke out "pourquoi?" and then I turned my head and took a huge gulp of air. My comp lost it. In front of this lady! Needless to say. We are not going back:)
So everyone has been wondering about the weather. Surprisingly, we don't have snow yet. It's snowed but it hasn't stayed. It's been cold, but bearable. Also, my companion is great! I only get annoyed when she stops talking during a lesson and makes me struggle through with my cave man French. My favorite is when people say "You can speak in English." Most of our investigators are from Africa. Yeah. We kind of stopped talking to most Canadians. Don't judge us, it's just that the immigrants are waaaaay more receptive.
So, this week my comp and I visited a less active recent convert named Silvano Kirika. He's a refugee from the Congo and was baptized in March. He hasn't been to church in a long time. So we set up an appointment to meet with him and he wasn't home when we got there. So we called and he said "Oh I'm so sorry! I forgot and I'm out running errands. Do you think you could meet me at the mall?" We ran around and around trying to find this man and had about 15 minutes left until our next appt. We toyed around with the idea of telling him we couldn't make it. But in the end we decided we really needed to meet with him. When we finally sat down we could see instantly that something was not right. He looked exhausted and there was so much pain in his eyes. He immediately started telling us about his wife who is stuck in the Congo, the governement won't let her leave because of the war. He told us he has been praying so hard to find work because right now his job forces him to work every Sunday. My heart was aching the entire time I was talking to this man of incredible faith. We talked for a little while longer and then I felt prompted to promise him that he would be able to attend church again with his wife. Tears welled up in my eyes and his and he told us he felt a peace he hasn't felt in a long time. We said a prayer in that crowded mall and I poured my soul out to Lord begging that this man would be blessed in broken and almost incomprehensible French. We told him we would stay in contact and then went to our next meeting. That night I started to write the whole instance in my journal and I couldn't help but cry. This man has incredible faith. And even though he said we helped him, I'm more convinced that he helped me. My eyes are welling up even as I'm typing this. I don't know at what point it happened but I have a deep and profound love for the people I have met here.
Family it's almost that time again. I get to call home on Christmas so I'm planning on calling around 2 or 3 our time, which would be 12 or 1 your time. I'm excited to talk to you all! I also have a small selfish Christmas wish. Do you think Jordan could conference in or that I could talk to him for like 5 minutes or something? That would be a really good present:)
Okay since I'm a missionary I'm going to leave you all with a commitment. When I arrived in the CMM Pres. and Sister Cannon challenged us to read the BOM and highlight in yellow every time God or Jesus is mentioned. They gave us those paperback BOM that you cand get for a couple of dollars. This experience has changed my view of the BOM. I love what I've learned from doing this. In this last general conference Elder Tad R. Callister said "this book does not merely claim to be a moral treatise or theological collection of insightful writings. It claims to be the word of God, every sentence, every verse, every page." So this is my commitment for you for the new year.
I love you all. Really. If you thought I loved you before you better believe that I love you even more now. This is God's church. The Book of Mormon is true. Have a beautiful week and remember that tout ira bien!
Bisous Bisous
Soeur Perkins
P.s. Congrats Adrienne on your call to the Quezon City mission! I love you girly!
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